For many, many, many years we’ve heard the eerie cry of wild peacocks early in the morning from the woods near our home. If you haven’t heard a wild peacock letting the world know of their presence, particularly in mating season, it can be a bit disconcerting as some of their sounds have an almost human-like quality.

Even though we’ve known they’ve been in our woods for many, many years, we’ve only seen them at a distance from time to time. So, imagine our surprise when my wife was woken up early yesterday morning when she heard them on our roof. When she went out to investigate she saw four wild peacocks, a huge male and three females, on the roof of my son’s house. They must have been very hungry as she noticed they’d eaten almost all of the plant seedlings we had started in grow trays to be planted in our garden in a week or so.

They spent most of the day checking out our backyard without any noticeable concern when we were watching them strut around the yard. The male, nicknamed “Gorgeous George” by my wife, kept fanning periodically for his ladies and the size of his displayed feathers was simply incredible. They were gone by late yesterday afternoon. While we don’t know if they’ll be back, we certainly hope we will be graced with their presence once again.

A side note…in April 2012, the peacocks were particularly “yowly” and as I rode the train to work, I wrote a poem about Time and Peacocks, about difference perspectives of time between man and, in this case, peacocks. It’s at the end of the post if you’d like to read it.

(Note: All photos taken with the Nikon Df with a manual focus 80-200 F4 lens) Please click to enlarge.

“Gorgeous George” in full display

“Gorgeous George” and his very long feather train

A very alert “Gorgeous George”

“Gorgeous George” head shot

Time

Up at 3:45

Singing frogs suddenly silent as you walk by
Yowling peacocks nearby in mist covered woods
Concerned only with love

As you leave at 4:25
So not to miss the 5:07
It’s prompt departure

At work by 5:55

Life governed by time hacks
Snippets here meetings there
Second hand resolutely soldiering on

Sunrises sunsets
Not in tune to defined linear time steadily ticking by
Fall one hour back
Spring one hour forward

Crooning peacocks simply living in seasonal time
In touch with earth below sky above
Ruled by sun tides and moon

Not caring a wit about clocking in
No Artificial sunrise sunset for them

Their internal clock
In touch with the seasons slowly passing by
To the deep pulsating beat of
The earth below where they sleep

Frenetic seconds minutes hours days
Weeks months years
Flying by

Life in the fast lane
Measured in sixty second increments

Finite time
Man’s existence merely a mote

In an universe infinitely expanding
Where time is measured in billions of years

Peacocks simply existing
In harmony with the universe

5:55 doesn’t exist

In the world of universal time
Where love reigns supreme
Season by season

I'm a professional scavenger making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.